Something Wicked This Way Comes...

Crystal water turns to dark
Where ere it's presence leaves it's mark
And boiling currents pound like drums
When something wicked this way comes...

A presence dark invades the fair
And gives the horses ample scare
Chaos rains and panic fills the air
When something wicked this way comes...

Ill winds mark it's fearsome flight,
And autumn branches creak with fright.
The landscape turns to ashen crumbs,
When something wicked this way comes...

Flowers bloom as black as night
Removing color from your sight
Nightmarish vines block your way
Thorns reach out to catch their prey

And by the pricking of your thumbs
Realize that their poison numbs
From frightful blooms, rank odors seep
Bats & beasties fly & creep

'Cross this evil land, ill winds blow
Despite the darkness, mushrooms glow
All will rot & decompose
For something wicked this way grows...

I am reading. Reading in the kitchen while my teakettle heats. Reading at the table waiting for Nature Boy to serve up the dinner. Reading when I should be sleeping, even reading while knitting.


Why, you ask?


Well, I am going to see a musical this weekend. And in my mind I need to read the book first, or it will all be ruined. I'm one of the breed who usually like the book better than the movie, play, what-have-you. If I see it, then I will never go back and read the book which would have been infinitely better. So I am reading because of that.

Plus this came in the mail today:

A double whammy. So torn about which to read! I am still working on Sock #1 of Pair O'Sox. I hope to return to knitting full force once this reading jag is through.

Speaking of, I recently tore through three novels by Jules Watson. They take place in Scotland during the time of the Roman invasions and I could not put them down or read them fast enough. My local library is so sick of me, seems I'm requesting book after book from them of late!

I have been checking out some knitting and sewing books to see if they are worth the purchase and so far nary a one is looking like something I'd want taking up precious space on my bookshelf.

My sleep has been fretful, eluding me and then driving me mad with strange dreams. I am very frustrated of late in one area of my life and am trying to figure it out. It still amazes me, a former student of psychology, how the mind can irritate, aggravate and unnerve every inch of one's bodily systems, from digestion to immune system, circulatory to muscular/skeletal.

Oh well--off to read a little more and then try for some sleep, I work a dreaded 12-hour shift tomorrow and will be alone all morning to boot. No wonder a girl can't sleep!

Bad Vegan!!!

Being a vegan isn't as hard as one might think. On most days. Here is my sordid confession of my downfall.

It all happened at Irish Fest. I was happily enjoying a plain baked potato. No butter, no sour cream for this staunch vegan. I was walking across the lawn to join Nature Boy who was eating lots of different animals in a bowl. And then I saw it.

My clan's tie. Hanging on a display in the back of a vendor booth. It called my name, I swear it.

I walked closer, fingered the fabric and shuddered. I knew it but had to look. Damn it was wool! I swear my ancestors whispered in my ear, get this, wear this, be proud of this. And so I faltered, purchasing this tie of wool. I tell myself, I will wear it and pass it down and if my sisters don't have kids, I'll ask them to tie it 'round my neck for the wake.

And you thought I ate a steak or something, didn't you? Pshaw!!!

So here is the new McPherson clan tie, in the dress tartan. I could not bring myself to don the hunting tartan, you see. Also hanging with it is my latest sewing project, a long shirt. In the background, note the newest addition to our family, a happy fern I call Reilly. She hangs too high up for evil Madison Penelope to destroy her. She did try for some time to get to her, then ran off to forge some other evil plan of destruction.


Here is Sock #1 in the Pair O'Sox, stretched over the kittens' Oral Hygiene Solution bottle so you can see the pattern a little better. It's from a former Interweave Knits pattern.


On the knitting topic, I seem to knit things from Interweave Knits all the time. The other publication I subscribe to, Vogue Knitting, usually doesn't inspire me so much. Sadly, I can't not re-subscribe and just did so this week...I think I need more strength to resist here. Anyone else have this problem? I really think Vogue Knitting sucks but can't let it go.

I leave you with some of my last flowers and some shots from the garden, highlighting the heirloom tomatos we grow from seed each year. Nature Boy and I are off for more camping this weekend and I hope we don't spend the whole time a soggy tent while it pours out there...